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Pennsylvania

Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for Pennsylvania.

431Documented
6In custody
377Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

Where Pennsylvania’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1700s 77 1910s 73 1930s 68 2020s 41 1950s 36 1970s 30

Documented cases

431 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

J
Joan Nicholson
Released
At 36 the oldest of the eight Flower City Conspiracy defendants, from Philadelphia. Arrested Sept 6, 1970 in t...
S
Santiago Nieves Marzán
Santiago Nieves Marzán was a Puerto Rican independence supporter imprisoned at Lewisburg. Executive Order 7731...
X
Xavier Nolley-Hall
Released
Xavier Nolley-Hall, 20, was with Raphael Shaw entering the West Philadelphia Wells Fargo with intent to steal...
S
Samuel Nye
Released
Samuel Nye was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the Whi...
C
Casper Oberstadt
Released
Casper Oberstadt appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecution...
A
Andy Ogando
Released
Andy Ogando was a union steelworker arrested during the 1937 Little Steel strike against Bethlehem Steel's Cam...
A
Andrew Onda
Released
Andrew Onda was a western Pennsylvania Communist Party leader prosecuted under both the Pennsylvania state sed...
B
Benjamin Parkinson
Released
Benjamin Parkinson was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of...
W
William Parson
Released
William Parson was a Slovan striker shot in the arm and arrested during the National Miners' Union coal strike...
K
Kathryn Patterson
Released
Kathryn Patterson was a Franklin & Marshall College student arrested at Lancaster’s September 2020 protest f...
T
Thomas Patterson
Released
Thomas Patterson is named in the later exile records as one of the men sent to Virginia with the Philadelphia...
R
Randolph Gaston Payne
Released
Randolph Gaston Payne was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-mart...
L
Lester Peay
Released
Lester Peay was a picket in the 1950 New Kensington clothing-store dispute. He served ten months in the result...
I
Israel Pemberton
Released
Israel Pemberton Jr., a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and philanthropist so influential among Friends that cri...
S
Steve Perlich
Released
Steve Perlich was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners —...
R
Robert Philson
Released
Robert Philson was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
T
Thomas Pike
Released
Thomas Pike, a Philadelphia dancing and fencing master, was one of the citizens arrested in the September 1777...
R
Robert Porter
Released
Captain Robert Porter was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and...
J
Joseph Posey
Released
Joseph Posey was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
J
John Powers
Released
Major John Powers was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marc...
A
Albert B. Prashner
Released
Albert B. Prashner, from Scran ton, Pennsylvania, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to...
H
Helen Prescelic
Released
Helen Prescelic was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners...
T
Theresa Presillac
Released
Theresa Presillac was a militant picket-line leader at Wildwood serving two years at the Blawnox Workhouse, on...
J
Jacobus Quigg
Released
Jacobus Quigg is named in the later exile records as one of the men sent to Virginia with the Philadelphia pri...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Pennsylvania that appear in the census’s case files.

Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
23 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
13 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
13 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
12 cases
SCI DallasDallas, Pennsylvania
12 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases